A communication session, such as a phone conversation between two users, is largely dependent on a communication quality of the session. Calls can be disconnected, dropped, etc., if the communication quality is too low and network resources may be used unnecessarily if the communication quality used is higher than needed. Improving communication sessions by changing a communication quality traditionally includes transmission power adjustments, changing bandwidth allocations, handoffs, changing error correction schemes, and other such network-related and/or communication-device-related changes. The communication sessions can involve communication devices, such as traditional phones, mobile phones, or other communication-enabled devices.
Traditionally, the determination as to whether there is a need to change a quality of communication during a communication session is based on measurable network characteristics, such as traffic distribution, bandwidth, and signal quality, and on the capabilities of the communication device. Such techniques do not always provide optimal indicators for determining when there is a need to change communication quality. This is a consequence of ignoring indicators received from the users communicating via the communication session.
More particularly, communication sessions between users can be characterized as a “mouth-to-ear” communication chain with a pair of communication devices and a network interposed between the users in the communication chain. Determinations as to whether there is a need to change a quality of communication during a communication session, however, have largely ignored indicators that are not measured or derived from between the pair of communication devices. Speech-related factors such as the meaning of spoken phrases, repetition, timing, intonation in speech, and other factors are conventionally not used in determinations as to whether there is a need to change a quality of communication during a communication session. As a result, conventional quality change determinations are inherently flawed because they focus on only part of the communication chain while ignoring indications provided by the most important part, the user(s), which may be readily available in the form of speech-related input.
Accordingly, there exists a need for methods, systems, and computer program products for changing a communication quality of a communication session based on a meaning of speech data.